How to use Zoom or FaceTime with an Apple TV (or any TV)

Make other people’s faces larger, but watch out for the audio.

- GLENN FLIEISHMAN

Speaking for myself and seemingly everyone I know, we are all on Zoom, FaceTime, Teams, Hangouts, Meet, Webex, or some other videoconferencing tool all the time, whether for paid work, volunteering and nonprofit involvement, the PTA, or socializing and family chat.

Unless you’ve got an iMac and it’s set up in the right place, you might find yourself squinting to see everyone on screen—or leaning in or balancing a laptop on your lap. It’s distracting for you and anyone with whom you’re conversing.

There’s a better way, if you have an Apple TV or a newer TV that supports video streaming over AirPlay 2 (go. macworld.com/spa2): you can use AirPlay or AirPlay 2 to stream your Mac, iPhone, or iPad’s screen to the TV. If you purchase an HDMI adapter for a Mac or a mobile device, you can instead hardwire yourself into any TV with a spare HDMI port.

SET UP YOUR DEVICE RELATIVE TO THE TV SET

If you’re using the built-in webcam in your Mac, iPhone, or iPad, you need to set it up in such a way that you’re looking at least mostly in the direction of its camera. It’s often hard to place a devices safely above a TV set, so you might want to position it on a surface just in front of the TV. Looking past the device, to other people it looks like you’re looking into the camera—and at them—instead of off to the side.